Has your experience as a professional athlete been a blessing or a curse in the business world?

My experience as a professional athlete has been a blessing. Anyone who reaches the top of their profession, be it in sports or in business, understands what it takes to win. Proper preparation, dedication, sacrifice, hard work, accountability to your team, striving for a unified goal – all the things you learn in sports transcend athletics and become applicable in the business world.

Jeff Novak
CEO, IF Development
Former offensive lineman, New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars

About Jeff Novak

Jeff is the chief architect of business direction at IF Development . He is responsible for translating a client’s financial objectives into a master sales and marketing plan, complete with sales forecast, financial outlook, sales compensation plan, and identification of key marketing milestones. With the master sales and marketing plan in hand, IF Development clients have clear visibility to execution and measurement of the overall strategic game plan. Jeff Novak, who played out a career of eight full seasons in the National Football League as a hard hitting offensive lineman and is a possible future Hall of Famer, is known for his natural leadership and high moral standards. Along with Will and Tony, Jeff is also an active public speaker who is passionate about motivating young people, being a positive influence in his community, and being a person who delivers results with integrity.

Builders need to start focusing on what it takes to become a green builder.

Sure, it may seem like it is only a buzzword, but green building is becoming a highly sought after commodity in the home builder business. Are you looking to offer green building in the next year? 5 years? Ten years? If your answer is no to all three, then you may be missing out on a great opportunity to stay ahead of the curve in the real estate market.

“In response to growing awareness of the building environment’s effect on the natural environment, architects and builders, activists and government agencies are increasingly championing an alternative method of design and construction,” said Jeffrey Kaye of KCET-Los Angeles on the Online NewsHour. “A further encouragement for green building projects has come from cities, states and government agencies, which in recent years have enacted green building standards.”

More and more people are making the push for everything to be built in an eco-friendly manner. Residential developers need to embrace this trend and move forward rather than waiting until they are required to meet green standards.

Where do you go from here?

Meet the people. Look into attending a green building conference that will answer some of your basic (and advanced) questions and also give you an opportunity to network with some of the most innovative names in the green building business.

Get educated. Price out classes and certifications that you will need to become a green builder.

Talk to the locals. See what local companies cater towards green building. Keep track of their contact information and ask for pricing on things that you know you will need in the future. Having a great directory full of contacts and pricing will make your life easier as you move forward.

Stay informed. Sign up for online newsletters about green building. A great resource is at www.buildinggreen.com. Not only do they have monthly issues, but they also have wonderful archives of past issues.

Meet the press. If you decide to start building energy-efficient homes and developments, write a press release immediately and let everyone know about it. Be sure to put it up on your website as well. Keep writing press releases every to keep your name out there in the news. This will increase your popularity to future home buyers and on the web.

And the winner is... Submit your finished projects for green building awards. You can’t buy that kind of publicity!